Turia lashes out at Labour over inaction
Former Maori Party co-leader Dame Tariana Turia says the people of Ratana continue to support Labour despite the party having done little for them.
Turia, who was a Labour MP from 1996 to 2004, left the party over the debate about ownership of New Zealand’s foreshore and seabed, and won her Te Tai Hauauru seat back in the 2004 by-election with the Maori Party, which had formed around her.
She retired from politics at the 2014 election but remains a prominent political commentator.
Speaking at Ratana yesterday, Turia said no party other than the Maori Party was ever going to operate on kaupapa (principle) because ‘‘they rely on middle New Zealand to vote for them’’.
‘‘(The election) is a great opportunity for the Maori Party to show that in actual fact they are driven by kaupapa.
‘‘If you think you can find that in the Labour Party, well go for it, but history hasn’t told us that.
‘‘You look at the houses out here in the pa, they were built by the National Party, not Labour.
‘‘So these people have been intensely loyal to Labour and Labour has to step up. If they think that they hold the key to Maori future they have to show us,’’ she said.
Turia said ‘‘the issues of inequity that exist today’’ didn’t happen overnight but they also hadn’t ‘‘happened through National’’.
At the anniversary of Maori King Tuheitia’s coronation last year, he surprised many Maori when he said he could no longer support the Labour Party and would instead be throwing his support behind the Maori Party.
At the time, Labour blamed the comments on the King’s advisor, Tuku Morgan, who had been recently appointed president of the Maori Party.
The comments left Labour MP Nanaia Mahuta, who holds the Hauraki Waikato seat and is close to the king, somewhat out in the cold.
There has been much speculation over whether she would stand again in the election this year as her loyalty to the king could outweigh her loyalty to the Labour Party.
Mahuta was welcomed to Ratana Pa yesterday alongside the king’s son, What umoana Paki, and other representatives of Kingitanga. Paki is standing in for his father, who is recovering from a kidney transplant.
The Maori Party and Mana Party leader, Hone Harawira, also joined Kingitanga in being welcomed on to the marae.